Coachella: So many bands, so little time

Yeah, we know, it's going to be crowded at this weekend's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Above: At the Coachella music festival in 2009 on the second of three days of music and performance art, with temperatures in the 90's.
— Sean M. Haffey / Union-Tribune

Yeah, we know, it's going to be crowded at this weekend's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Above: At the Coachella music festival in 2009 on the second of three days of music and performance art, with temperatures in the 90's.
— Sean M. Haffey / Union-Tribune

There’s an easy way to enjoy yourself at this weekend’s 11th annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, whether you’re a veteran attendee or a first-timer. Just repeat after me: Less is more.

That may sound contradictory when you’re dealing with nearly 140 bands and solo acts, which are scheduled to perform on five stages spread out over 400 acres at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. But with temperatures typically in the high 90s and low triple digits at Coachella, constantly dashing back and forth from stage to stage is not a sound idea.

So, slow down, relax, and don’t try to do it all. A little goes a long way at this three-day festival (except for drinking water, which you should do often). So does common sense.

Coachella’s producers are expecting a sellout crowd of 65,000 per day, thanks to such major attractions as Jay-Z, Muse, Gorillaz, ﻿Thom Yorke’s new Radiohead-offshoot band, Atoms For Peace, and the hard-rocking Them Crooked Vultures (which features Led Zeppelin alum John Paul Jones and Nirvana/Foo Fighters veteran Dave Grohl). But what makes Coachella so special is that it also provides the chance to sample up-and-coming acts that typically perform in clubs or small theaters.

Acts like Dirty Projectors (featuring former Golden Hill singer-guitarist Amber Coffman), Edward Sharpe ﻿& The Magnetic Zeros, Sia, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Infected Mushroom. And don’t forget about the Soft Pack, the only San Diego-bred band in this year’s lineup — and a good reason to arrive early on Sunday.

TOMORROW

The Avett Brothers: There’s a good reason this North Carolina trio is the only act booked to perform this year at both Coachella and the following weekend’s Stagecoach festival in Indio. This predominantly acoustic group’s uproarious blend of bluegrass with punk attitude and rock ’n’ roll combustion is a sure bet to get the party started in almost any setting.

GEORGE VARGA

DJ Lance Rock: He wears a bright orange jump suit and Brad Pitt dressed up like him for Halloween, but if that’s not enough enticement to check out DJ Lance Rock, you should know that the beloved host of “Yo Gabba Gabba” was both an indie rocker and a record store clerk. So his repertoire — which favors funk, house, hip-hop and techno — is just as impressive as his ability to get kids to eat green beans.

Grizzly Bear: The Brooklyn quartet’s artisanal studio album, “Veckatimest,” is hard to re-create live: Good thing stripping down for concert play doesn’t detract from vocal harmonies or mosaic-like arrangements. Recommended for fans of the “Twilight: New Moon” soundtrack (they’re on it) and of adult contemporary indie pop.

KELI DAILEY

P.O.S.: Minneapolis’ Stefon Alexander, P.O.S., is the indie antidote to the chauvinism and conspicuous consumption of modern commercial hip-hop. His music is hard to classify and all his own, mixing punk and rock riffs with heavy bass lines, raw drum loops and well-crafted, intelligent lyrics that lambaste pop culture.

TOVIN LAPAN

SATURDAY

Camera Obscura: This quintet from the not-so-sunny Scotland actually makes perfect music for Coachella. Singer Tracyanne Campbell’s melancholy vocals backed by the band’s dreamy horns and xylophones provide just the kind of music you’d expect to hear in a vast, sunny desert, surrounded by palm trees and memories.

N.G.

Dirty Projectors: One of the most musically ambitious bands around, this New York ensemble combines art-rock smarts and charged electric guitar excursions with an intricately layered vocal style (called “hocketing”) ﻿that was created in the 13th century by French monks. Shout it out: “Oui! Oui!”

G.V.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: Edward Sharpe is the alter-ego of Alex Ebert, who formed the 10-person folk-rock flock in 2009 after breaking up with his girlfriend and checking into rehab. The endearingly bumpkin “Home” could accompany the honky-tonk scenes in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” while the cinematic “Kisses Over Babylon” belongs in “Lawrence of Arabia.” (See for yourself, Coachella no-goers, at Belly Up tonight.)

D.C.

Old Crow Medicine Show: No one should ever say OCMS doesn’t take risks. One of its first hits was “Wagon Wheel,” which involved the bold move of adding lyrics to a Bob Dylan song. Then, there’s the fact that the Nashville-based group is an unabashed, old-school Americana bluegrass band living in a world gone Lady Gaga for the pop flavor of the month.

T.L.

The xx: Lead singers Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim sound like lazy lovers sharing secrets on a pillow. Their self-titled debut album does midtempo atmospherics and innuendo, and no other new band comes close to this British act’s buzz.

K.D.

SUNDAY

Jonsi: Icelandic band Sigur Ros launched the post-rock sound to ethereal heights in the ’00s, pairing apocalyptic guitar surges with lead singer Jonsi’s falsetto, alien-like howling (much of which is in a nonsensical language called Hopelandic). The group’s since gone into hibernation, leaving Jonsi to contribute to the “How to Train Your Dragon” soundtrack, churn out a lullaby cover of fellow Coachella act MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” and record his first full-length solo effort, “Go,” released April 5.

D.C.

Local Natives: If you knew this Los Angeles band, you’d be into them. See their Coachella set and you’ll thank the rock festival gods for catchy art bands made in the “Talking Heads” mold. Then buy their recently released “Gorilla Manor.”

K.D.

Miike Snow: This electro-pop band started as a side project for U.S. singer-songwriter Andrew Wyatt and Swedish producers Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, the duo behind Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” The trio never planned to tour, but after the TV on the Radio meets Passion Pit single “Animal” rose up the charts, they are selling out clubs across the United States.

T.L.

Pavement: If it wasn’t for these 1990s indie rockers, most known for the song “Cut Your Hair,” things like lo-fi, talk-singing and perhaps even Coachella wouldn’t be the same. In fact, using irony and wearing a hipster haircut is also directly related to Pavement, so make sure to catch the band’s reunion show. And beware of fawning aging hipsters.

N.G.

Sly & The Family Stone: If your goal is to dance to the music in a really old-school way, you must catch the early Sunday evening set by Woodstock veterans Sly & The Family Stone. With any luck, Sly’s pioneering funk-rock fusion will take you higher just as the sizzling Coachella temperature starts to cool. (That’s assuming, of course, that Sly — a notorious no-show at many of his concerts in the 1970s — actually turns up.)